Friends Newsletter 1 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010

FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 Spring 2010

Ipswich Museums Friends Newsletter 1 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010

Contents Editor’s Notes 3 IAA Discounts 3 The Friends of the Ipswich Museums Chairman’s Message 4 Newsletter is published quarterly and We need a Treasurer 5 distributed free to all members. The FOIM Our Cover Picture 5 was set up in 1934 to support the work Peter Berridge’s Column 6 and development of the Ipswich Annual General Meeting 9 Museums: Ipswich Museum in the High Lunch Time Talks 9 Street (including Gallery 3 at the Town Visit to Oxford 9 Hall), Christchurch Mansion and the Wolsey Gallery in Christchurch Park. Membership 10 Since April 2007 the Ipswich Museums Guides 10 have been managed as part of the A Tour of Witnesham 10 Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. Legacies 12 Friends continue to provide financial Our Financial Contribution 12 support to the Ipswich Museums as well Art Master Class 13 as acting as volunteers. The Friends run Insects on the Move 14 outings, lectures and other events for their Thoughts on a Model Plough 15 members. Staff Activities 17 The Friends provide guided tours of both Other Organisations 19 the Mansion and the Museum, including FOIM Council 2009 –2010 20 free taster tours of the Mansion on Corporate Members 20 Wednesdays. Tours for groups can be booked by contacting the Mansion (01473 433554). Advertisements 5, 15, 19 FOIM is a member of the British Association of Friends of Museums and Ipswich Arts Association. Cover Illustration: Playing Soldiers (1979) by Colin Moss. This Contributions to the Summer 2010 picture was chosen by our Chairman, Newsletter should be sent to the editor by see page 5 1 May.

Please visit our website at www.foim.org.uk. Jerry Latham would welcome your comments. We have already started to use the website to advertise events which are notified too late to be printed in the Newsletter.

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Editor’s Notes I must start by apologising for particularly after he had spent adding incorrect copyrights to two some time with Oskar Kokoschka. pictures in the last issue. The I was delighted to hear on page 15 cover picture and the Colin Moss that the room into which our insect “Dustbin” on page 15 should both collection has been moved is to be have been “Copyright the artist's called the Morley Room. I was estate”. prompted to find out about Claude We have a picture by Colin Moss Morley after I had helped to on our cover—Mary Southwood catalogue all the entomology chose it and comments on it on books in Ipswich Museum. There page 5. This picture together with was a complete set of Morley’s many others by Colin Moss is on Ichneumons of Great Britain all display in Gallery 3 until 17 April. It lovingly inscribed with messages is well worth the climb up to see to his wife. this very varied collection. In this issue we are pleased to Everyone I have spoken to about it include three advertisements from has enjoyed it - even some who our corporate members. claimed to hate modern art. Colin was particularly good at depicting Mary Halliwell ordinary Ipswich folk doing everyday things. It is also interesting to see how his style developed over the years, Ipswich Arts Association Discounts

FOIM is a subscribing member of These events will include the the Ipswich Arts Association and Ipswich Civic Concerts, and this entitles its individual members certain ballet and opera events at to discounts on certain events the Ipswich Regent Theatre. The promoted by Ipswich Borough concessions do not extend to other Council. promoted events Paid-up members of societies To obtain these concessions, affiliated to Ipswich Arts please produce a current Association may receive special membership card confirming your offers on some events promoted affiliation to FOIM when booking. by Ipswich Borough Council.

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Chairman’s Letter

Dear Friends objects from museums and collections in East Anglia. Part 1 is Well, 2010 is underway and there on until July 2010 and then the is more for us all to think about in exhibition will become Part 2. the Museums. Alan Swerdlow has come up with Firstly I must say how pleasant it some more interesting visits for was to meet so many of you at the us. This year he offers Cardiff in Christmas Party; I do hope you all Spring and Oxford in September enjoyed the evening as much as I (see page 9). did. The AGM is on 14 April; you might The year has begun with an like to write it in your diary. I know excellent exhibition on the works of it sounds a long way off, but time Colin Moss, who is fondly goes so fast - April will be here remembered by so many people in before we know it ! This year our Ipswich and for his Art School visiting speaker will be Jo Rooks connection in particular. I came to from the Museum of East Anglian his work relatively late, because I Life in Stowmarket. Jo was the am quite new to Ipswich, but I was winner of the Robert Logan Award so impressed by this exhibition. I for the best presentation by a think it is the great humanity in his young museum professional. work which is so striking; he has a Those of us who were in York for way of capturing a subject with his the BAFM Conference heard Jo pen, paint, pencil or charcoal in speak and were very impressed, such a complete way that you feel so I do hope you can come along you have seen that person just to the AGM at the Mansion and recently. The exhibition is at hear her. Gallery 3 in the Town Hall until 17 April. I hope you will be able to Please keep an eye on the see it. website, where you will find all sorts of up to date information, and At Colchester Castle there is an you can add your own comments. opportunity to enter The Medieval We love to hear from you! Mind which sounds a bit frightening but also very I look forward to seeing you at the interesting. This exhibition covers AGM. the period from 1066 to 1539, the Best wishes, Norman Conquest to Dissolution of the Monasteries, and shows Mary Southwood

4 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 We need a Treasurer

Would you like to serve on the There are other opportunities, too; FOIM Council? Our Treasurer has for example I would like to create a decided to spend some time in the new post for someone to deal with sun and has, therefore, to leave the publicity, spreading the word about Council. As a registered charity we the Friends to bring in more cannot function without a treasurer, members and to make people so this is very important. You do aware of events and services we not need qualifications in offer e.g. talks, tours. accountancy, but a logical mind is If you are interested please contact helpful! Our Independent me. Examiner, Ken Wilson, is always willing to offer help and advice. Mary Southwood .

Our Cover Picture Mary can be contacted via our website (www.foim.org.uk) or c/o Ipswich Museum, My choice for the cover High Street, Ipswich IP1 3QH illustration is a work from the Colin Moss Exhibition now in Gallery 3 at the Town Hall. Playing Soldiers (1979) is oil and collage on board. The collage is the attachment of real playing cards which provide bright stress points among the dark soldiers. The title is interesting; are they ‘playing at being soldiers’ or are they ‘soldiers playing cards’ ? This work is an excellent example of Colin Moss’s great skill at portraying lifelike facial expression and bodies in clothes/ clothes on bodies. These skills and others can be seen in a variety of works in the Exhibition. I hope you will be able to visit . Mary Southwood

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Peter Berridge’s Column

The Art School Building One of the things that we are still awaiting is a final decision relating to the Ipswich Art School building. By the time this actually appears in print hopefully the decision will have been taken and we will be forging ahead with a fund raising campaign. As part of this we hope to have taken up temporary residence in the building and to be running a programme of exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. In order to achieve progress with the fund raising campaign, and also run the programme in the building, the support of the Friends will be vital. One of the things that in particular we will be looking for is a body of volunteers to act as gallery invigilators who would work Typically when I start writing the alongside museum staff. As I have words flow quickly and normally already stated, however, there are there is such a lot to write about still some critical formal approvals that I have often had the difficulty that are needed before we get the of knowing what to leave out. This ‘green light’ to proceed and so we time I have to admit that I am all just have to be patient in relation struggling and this is in large part to this exciting project. because as we are, in many aspects, at a moment ‘in between’. The Egyptian Gallery A number of key decisions are Another way that we are ‘in about to be taken over the next few between’ is that a number of days, weeks and moths that should projects are part of the way herald some further significant through such as the new Egyptian developments for the museum Gallery in Ipswich Museum which service but it is just too early to we now expect to open to the report on these.

6 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 public at the beginning of August. streams such as Renaissance in This project is particularly important the Regions which has been so and I am beginning to compare it to beneficial to us over the last three a ‘show house’ on a new estate. It years. Another critical issue will be will be through this gallery that we the level of government funding to demonstrate what can be achieved Local Authorities which, again in the rest of the building and in irrespective of the party in power particular give confidence to after May, will be significantly potential funding bodies. reduced over the next few years though by how much and how The Wolsey Gallery quickly is a major topic of debate. We have also started the process Some people suggest a series of that will lead to a redisplay of the successive yearly decreases of 5%, Wolsey Art Gallery at Christchurch while some are suggesting that as Mansion. The redisplay will well as successive cuts that there continue to cover the themes it might be a higher figure in does but will place a far greater 2011/2012 of perhaps 10% or even emphasis on the life and works of more. Just to stress that this is not John Constable. The intention is a party political issue but just the that Christchurch Mansion realities of the current financial becomes the regional centre for situation and will occur which ever anyone wanting to view the works party is in power. So again in this of Constable and also to gain a respect we are ‘in between’. greater understanding of the man. There will also be stronger links One thing that is very clear is that from the gallery and the paintings there are going to be some out to ‘Constable Country’. challenging times ahead. In order to help us more effectively meet Future Funding these challenges one of the things Another aspect of this waiting mode that both of the councils that form is that a number of things that are the museum partnership, Ipswich currently being reviewed and and Colchester, have agreed is that discussed will not be resolved until over the next few months there will after the next general election. a major review of the museum After the next election, whatever service. This Fundamental Service the result, a number of significant Review (which you might in the changes are expected at a national future see abbreviated in level concerning how the cultural documents as the FSR) will be wide sector is organised and managed ranging though the full scope is still and also about major funding to be decided. The review will, however, also be inclusive and will 7 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 involve a range of so-called only raise the money to purchase stakeholders and interested the building but to go beyond this organisations and individuals and and create an endowment fund to this again is an area were the help support the building in the ‘Friends’ involvement will be vital. long term. The dream would also be to go even further and set up Endowment Funds funds linked to each of the major One last thing to mention is a museum venues in both Ipswich matter that is growing in and Colchester. In attaining this importance in my mind which is the dream it may take many years, idea of setting up endowment even decades, to achieve the funds. This is something very levels needed but you have to start common in the cultural sector in somewhere and consequently this countries like America but still is a subject that I will be returning surprisingly rare in this country. to again and again in the coming Certainly in terms of the Art months and years. School, subject to the full go- ahead, the intention will be to not

Museum staff exploring the Octagon Gallery in the Ipswich art School Building

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Friends News

Annual General Meeting with Gwyneth Reynolds in 2002. This is a history of the East Anglian 2010 School of Painting based at Benton The Annual General Meeting will End in Hadleigh. Diana has spent take place in Christchurch Mansion her life in Education but now at 7.30 pm on Wed 14 April. Tea enjoys researching local arts and and coffee will be served from 7.00 crafts. pm. Wed 2 June, Paul Bruce will tell After the business, Jo Rooks, from us about the History of the the Museum of East Anglian Life, Ipswich School of Art. Paul will talk about the museum in the attended the Art School in the community and working with Sixties. Paul was persuaded to talk volunteers. AGM notes are being about the Art School for our distributed with this Newsletter. members after his December 2009 Town Lecture for Ipswich Arts Association proved very popular. Lunch Time Talks All talks will start at noon and will These will take place at Priory Park be followed by a set two course (formerly known as Alnesbourne lunch. Priory). This venue has a modern Booking is required. Booking forms conference room, restaurant/bar are included with this Newsletter. area with stunning views and good parking. Mary Hollis & Paul Bruce

Three talks have been arranged for Visit to Oxford the Spring: Alan Swerdlow has arranged a trip Wed 7 April, Carol Twinch will talk to Oxford on 9 -10 September about Margaret Catchpole. 2010. The itinerary includes visiting Carol is a local historian and writer the recently refurbished who will introduce us to our local Ashmolean Museum and the heroine via links with Alnesbourne Bodleian Library, with spare time to Priory. visit other Museums of your own choice. The overnight stop will be Wed 5 May, Diana Grace will talk at the Barcelo Oxford Hotel. about the book Benton End Remembered she published jointly A leaflet including more details is

9 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 included with this Newsletter. If enrolled guides have been you wish to join the visit please showing a great deal of return the tear off part and you will enthusiasm and initiative and their be sent the booking form as soon extension of the taster tours has as it becomes available. been going well. From the Membership A New Guides Coordinator Secretary At the Guides meeting in January There have been five new ordinary Joan Munns was appointed memberships and one new Guides Coordinator to replace corporate member since the last Siobhan Steel who retired in the Newsletter. Autumn. Joan has also been Co- opted onto the Friends Council. Ms S Abbott Mrs C Burge A Tour of Witnesham Lady Freyberg Lady H Heygate Mr and Mrs J Wilson Mr and Mrs S Gagg and Ipswich School We extend a warm welcome to them all. Witnesham Manor Barbara Cole Membership Secretary As part of our winter study sessions, the new guides met at Mansion Guides Witnesham on 11 November 2009 to look at the relationship of Guided Tours Manor, Church and The Manor Farm as a comparison with the In the past few weeks we have Christchurch Mansion estate. received an unprecedented number of requests for tours and Witnesham is known to have been outside lectures and at the time of a Saxon settlement, and there has writing 10 have been arranged for long been a story of a Saxon this year, with two more in the warrior buried with his horse pipeline. The more recently discovered near the Church in the

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originally a single story hall house with a small parlour next to the hall. Two doorways, dating to around 1420, led into the cross passage, which separated this part from the service wing. In the late 16thC, chimneys and an upper storey were added, together with a somewhat grander parlour, reflecting the increased fortunes of the yeoman farmer who would have lived there Manor Farm at that time. In around 1700, a large service wing was added early 19th Century. The artefacts accommodating the kitchen, dairy unearthed, including silver harness and stores. parts, have been lost over time. We rounded off our tour with The Meadows family have been afternoon tea in front of a log fire in Lords of the Manor since the the “new” parlour. 1100s. The family seat, Witnesham Hall, remained in their ownership Erica Burroughs until the early 1980s. The Hall is a Mansion Guide timber framed house dating from the 15th or 16th C with a brick façade added in the early 1800s. From the back, the earlier origins are still evident. The present owner kindly showed us part of the interior including what is thought to be a 16th C carved oak overmantle, displaying the Meadows crest. From there we walked the ancient track across the water meadows to the Manor Farm. In Medieval times, if the Lord was absent, the Manor Farm ran the agricultural estate on his behalf. Sometimes, the building was the original Manor House, remaining as the farmhouse when a grander Hall was built nearby. This Manor Farm was 11 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010

Legacies If you would like to remember the Friends of Ipswich Museums in your Will you can be assured that any gift we receive will be used to enhance or conserve the collections in the Ipswich Museums. The Friends ensure that money from legacies is used only in ways that the donor would expect. If you are considering a legacy, please speak to your solicitor. Our registered charity number is: 275527

Friends’ Contribution to the Museum Here is a list of the money we have contributed to the Museum Service since 1995. Where items have been bought for the collection * indicates that outside grants have been applied for to complete the purchase, § indicates other museum resources have been used to complete the

1995 Contribution towards "Trimming" £1,500 Conservation of Deer Antlers £2,200 2000 Computer/Training Equipment £1,200 Costume Grant £200 Contribution to Dr Plunkett's Book £1,500 Books £500 Photography of Oil Paintings £2,920 "Dr Hingeston" by Gainsborough * £7,000 Books £500 2001 Contribution to Boss Hall Treasure * £3,000 Books £500 1996 Contribution:Market Research Project £2,000 Photography of Oil Paintings (cont) £1,500 Dishwasher for CCM £400 Books £500 2002 Woodworking machine § £7,000 Books £500 1997 Staff Training at Ickworth £400 Books £500 Photos of Town Hall Paintings £214 Geology Report £2,000 Wolsey Art Gallery £1,000 Education Work Station § £400 "Ladies of the Mason Family" 1998 by Constable* £10,000 Leaflets £510 Sound Equipment for Lectures £755 Lowestoft Porcelain £4,600 Museum, Ipswich Story display £2,000 Books £500 Electronic Slide Projector £1,585 Exhibition Gallery Grant £1,000 2003 Zoology conservation Grant £1,000 Books £500 Computer Accession Project £1,215 Grant towards Ipswich at War £5,000 Anglo Saxon Gilt £700 Viking Pendant§ £1,000 Design Computer Grant § £6,320 Grant for Mammal Gallery and 1999 Mansion Display Panels £2,000 Books £500 Improvements to storage of Contribution to CCM Restoration £4,000 costume collection £1,000 Conservation "Avenue of Trees" 2004 by Constable £1,000 Books £500 Restoration of Clocks in CCM £1,000 Drawings for Room Books £500

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Roman Knife Handle (Minerva) § £1,000 Cabinet for drawings in Three paintings by John Pryke £800 Wolsey Gallery £4,000 Demountable display cabinets £8,000 Broke Cup* £10,400 2005 2007 Books £500 Giles cartoon £800 Mammoth trail notice board £500 2008 Lighting for Constable paintings £3,500 Clarkson Exhibition £7,970 Valerie Irwin Drawing, Ipswich Docks £250 Picture by Reg Snook £800 Dishwasher £270 2009 Catalogues from Public Catalogue Conservation of Holbrook Foundation £200 Horse Harness £900 2006 Three paintings by John Western £1750 Books £500

This amounts to over £120,000. In addition we are making a contribution of £16,000 for the Egyptian Gallery. Where external grants have been applied for, these are usually dependent on the size of the contribution we have made and can be up to tem times the value of our contribution. The money comes from members subscriptions, profits made on our events and publications, legacies to FOIM and donations collected in the boxes at the Museum and Mansion.

Special Event for Friends – Art Master Class with Chen Hong Mr Chen is a highly regarded Service is hosting a number of Chinese artist from Beijing who is events to celebrate Mr Chen’s visiting the East of England this residence in April, including an spring. His visit is part of the Stories exhibition of his work in the of the World project, which is being University Campus Suffolk gallery led by the four hub museums in our on the Waterfront and family craft region. Mr Chen will be spending activities in Christchurch Mansion. March with the Fitzwilliam Museum This exciting project brings an as their artist in residence. In April exclusive opportunity for members he will be coming to Ipswich as the of the Friends of Colchester and Ipswich Museum Ipswich Museum Service artist in residence. Norfolk to attend a Museum and Archaeology Service master class led will be accommodating him in May. by Mr Chen. Colchester and Ipswich Museum Members of the

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Friends will be able to explore When? 7 April 2010 Chinese culture and tradition with a What time? 14:00 – 15:30 demonstration by the master artist Where? Wolsey Art Gallery, of his renowned calligraphy and How many? Up to 20 places are available. painting skills. There could also be Booking is essential. How much? £10 the chance for Friends to try their How do I book? Please contact Mel Hollis on hand at these skills too. 01473 433570 or at [email protected]. Insects on the move

Finishing touches are being put to collection. the new Morley Room in the old A few outstanding small jobs staff room at the High Street remain to be finished, but it is Exhibition Gallery. Following the hoped that the room will be fully deep freezing of the entire Morley operational in the summer. collection to eradicate any lurking pests, specialist removers have Jerry Bowdrey installed the cabinets in the old Senior Curator of Natural History Annex staff room. This has had a makeover to make it more suitable Claude Morley (1874 - 1951) was an for storage. English antiquary and entomologist. The collection is arranged in He moved to Earl Soham in 1892 and taxonomic order and wider aisles worked with John E. Taylor, then Curator between the rows of cabinets make of the Ipswich Museum. He married in it much easier to examine the 1904,living in Monk Soham until his death. drawers of specimens. He had no radio, telephone, or electricity in Microscopes and a work table will his house. be available for researchers and Morley worked first on Coleoptera, then students to study the collection Hemiptera and then Ichneumonidae. His which comprises tens of thousands magnum opus was the five volume of insects amassed by Morley Ichneumons of Great Britain (1903-1914). during his lifetime. Morley's collection of mainly Suffolk The washroom has been stripped material covers the period 1898-1951 and out and shelves installed, so that is still in the Museum. It occupies about the rich library of entomological 260 drawers. journals and books is now available Morley was a Fellow of the Entomological right next door to the insect Society of London.

14 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 Thoughts provoked by a model Steam Plough

If ever an engineering model can translation of the Rubai’yat of Omar be called beautiful the Ipswich Khayyam, was attacking the Museums model of a steam plough Liverpool and Manchester pulpits is surely it. With green and black for not denouncing the slave- livery gleaming as new and superb produced cotton from the South attention to detail it is a miniature and plantation slavery in general, example of the great Victorian and writing pamphlets on the aesthetic of the steam engine. subject. What is more it has a strange and Once the Civil War broke out the fascinating story attached to it. It North blockaded the South so that starts unexpectedly perhaps with they could no longer supply the the struggle against American cotton mills of Lancashire. slavery just before the Civil War. Therefore there were large scale The wealth of the plantation owners lay offs and starvation amongst the of the deep South was based on workers. The shortage of cotton led cotton grown by enslaved Afro- the British mill owners to look Americans. This cotton was woven elsewhere and for other countries and printed in the mills of northern to see if they could fill the gap. England. Abolitionists had long been seeking an alternative source of cotton based on free labour. When Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) visited Ipswich and London this was one of the things she discussed. George Alexander, a member of he great Ipswich Quaker banking family who was the treasurer of he British and Foreign Anti Slavery Society, was particularly concerned with this issue (he can be seen in the giant picture of Clarkson addressing the anti -slavery conference now in the museum). In the 1860s John Purcell Fitzgerald , the elder brother of the Edward FitzGerald of Woodbridge, famous for his 15 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010

Chief amongst these was Egypt, up 500%. For some years the then under the modernising and Leeds inventor John Fowler had forward-looking rule of the Khedive been working with the Ipswich firm Ismail, the grandson of Mehmet Ali. of Ransomes and Sims on solving Technically the Khedive was only various problems connected with the deputy of the Ottoman Sultan steam ploughing and had just come and the ruling family were Turkish. up with a greatly improved version. Despite strong English and French Hamil Pasha travelled to Leeds to influence, at this stage the country see what Fowler had to offer. was still independent. Although he lived in luxury at the Egyptian cotton could replace Queens Hotel he nevertheless American cotton, but to do so turned up as an “apprentice every Egyptian cotton production had to day at six, arriving in a brougham be completely modernised. As a with two black guards holding result agents of the Egyptian drawn sabres”. He was, apparently, government in Britain were deep in very popular with the workmen, discussion with agricultural frequently distributing oranges engineers. freshly delivered from Egypt. As a result Ransomes at Ipswich helped This led to a visit by Hamil Pasha, turn out the 200 complete sets of at that time a potential claimant to steam ploughs and sets of tackle the throne of Egypt. Hamil Pasha together with several complete was the son of the first Khedive of workshops for their maintenance. Egypt, Mehmet Ali and the uncle of In Feb 1864 an order was received the reigning Khedive Ismail. . Hamil by Fowlers to produce “A complete Pasha was a man of great working model of Fowler's Single sophistication who had been Engine Steam Ploughing system, educated in France and like most including ploughs, cultivators, of his Turkish Egyptian family a harrows etc. To be 1/10 original great moderniser. Amongst other size and engine made to take things he was the first Grand steam. Price No object. Issued by Master of the Masons in Egypt , HP (Halim Pasha) Shoubra”. Three (and later in Istanbul). His palace at such models appear to have been Shoubra was a centre for European made; two were destroyed in Egypt businessmen. and one is preserved in the Ipswich The delegation was interested in museum. After the war the the idea of using the most modern Egyptian cotton boom collapsed. At invention, steam plough, to convert around this time Ismail Pasha more of the Egyptian delta to invited Halim Pasha and all of his cotton, the value of which had gone other male relatives and potential 16 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 rivals for the throne to a last grand vizier. The links thus conference. On the way back the created between Ransomes and train on which they were travelling the Egyptian government were to was mysteriously driven over a persist and develop still further, but bridge which had not yet been built. that is, as they say, another story. Halim survived and decided to David Jones spend the rest of his life in Istanbul, Curator of Human History where his son in time became the

Staff Activities

st Future jobs fund with the Service on Dec 31 . Marlene Moyes, Gallery Service ‘Stepping Stones’ Manager reports: The Museum Service in Ken has been out of work for 6 partnership with Renaissance months and is enjoying his role of Hub Partners have secured Visitor Services Assistant and finds funding for ten apprenticeships the job really interesting and is and twenty jobs across the enjoying being part of a team that region. Four jobs will be based is very friendly and helpful. The job in Colchester and Ipswich,to is very different from what he has support this government done in the past and he is grateful initiative to get young people for the opportunity to work within aged 18 to 24, who have been the Museums Service and is disproportionately affected by looking forward to the next 6 months. Ken tells us that he could the recession, back into the certainly see himself working in this workplace.

Visitor Services Assistants These jobs are for a period of 6 months. Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service have appointed 2 Visitor Services Assistants to work within the Galleries Team at Ipswich. Ken Brooke aged 24 and Baden Chaplin were the 2 successful candidates and started

17 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 field in the future. approach to their project involving science, art, drama, ICT, English Baden Chaplin is just 21 and has and history. Both Catherine Newley been out of work for 9 months; this and I gave the girls plenty of this is also very different from his information on the topic. past jobs and is really enjoying the role. He enjoys working as part of a We have also helped with Key large but friendly team. Baden is Stage 1 Toy activities at looking forward to shadowing the Hollytrees. Teachers had told us Education workshops and that they would appreciate a experiencing activities and events change to the existing activity and is also looking forward to the (constructing cubes with letters and next 6 months. pictures on their faces). We have now produce a craft based activity Display and Marketing based on the construction of a There has been limited interest in clown with moving limbs. For the display and marketing posts children with poor craft skills we and closing dates for both posts have provided a simple jigsaw with were extended. Interviews took a picture of Noah’s Ark (which can place for the marketing post in be seen in the Childhood Gallery). January— due to paperwork issues Also currently being trialed: the the offer has yet to be accepted. Key Stage 1 children who come Interviews for the display post took and study Homes can now make place on 5 February. Further puppets of the characters they updates will be reported in the next meet in their sessions. They will Newsletter. colour and cut out characters of Mrs. Round, Mr. Round, a chimney The Formal Learning sweep and a maid. The children will choose two characters; once Team complete they can start Every year the girls from conversations between them, and Colchester Girls High School do a use them back in the classroom, as project on William Gilberd. Once part of a literacy lesson. again we were asked to help. The Ali Naylor Learning and Community History Learning Officer teams gave short presentations in Holy Trinity Church and in Tymperley’s Clock Museum (the Mental Health Project home of William Gilberd). The girls The Inside Out project is going wanted a cross-curricular well. Feedback has already been 18 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 positive from group members and Museum. CUCST (Colchester museum staff. We hope that this United Community Sports Trust) group will provide evidence for the have also managed to secure ‘therapeutic’ nature of engagement funding for a community project with our museums and be the that is open to the older Legends’ springboard for similar projects in participants. the future. The second part of the Open to The Stadium Legends All mental health training for staff intergenerational project has been will be piloted in April. a success and the exhibition part John Pollard (co-ordinated by the Museum service) is presently in Hollytrees

From Other Organisations

Dunkirk Commemoration Weekend at Ipswich Waterfront 29/30 May

Ipswich Borough Council, the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, the present owners of Sailing Barge “Pudge”, and the British Legion are collaborating to hold a weekend event to commemorate the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France in May/June 1940. Pudge, a spritsail barge which went to Dunkirk

19 FOIM Newsletter - Spring 2010 FOIM COUNCIL 2009-2010 President: Gay Strutt Vice-Presidents: Paul Bruce, Alan Swerdlow Chairman: Mary Southwood Vice-Chairman: Jeremy Latham (Webmaster) Secretary: Kathleen Daniel, 37 Parkwood, 11 Henley Road, Ipswich IPl 3SE, 01473 225429 Treasurer: David Kergon Membership & Social Secretary: Barbara Cole, 35 Pownall Road, Ipswich IP3 0DN 01473 287716 Newsletter Editor: Mary Halliwell, e-mail: [email protected] IAA Representative: Ferial Evans Ipswich Society Representative: Ken Wilson Co-opted Members: Stuart Curtis, Joan Munns Ex-officio Member: Peter Berridge, Colchester and Ipswich Museums Manager Any correspondence, except where indicated, should be sent to: FOIM, c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, IPSWICH IP1 3QH All Council Members can be contacted via our Website: www.foim.org.uk

FOIM CORPORATE MEMBERS

The Arlingtons Brasserie Ipswich School AXA Insurance plc. The Linden School of Music Barnes Construction Notcutts Nurseries Ltd Belvedere Reproductions Ryan Insurance Group W D Coe Ltd. Stan Gaskin Dummett Copp Suffolk New College Fred Olsen Ltd Titchmarsh & Goodwin East of England Co-operative Society Watson & Hillhouse Ltd Ipswich Building Society

Newsletter Published by The Friends of the Ipswich Museums Registered Charity Number: 275527